Now you say, "Why would you start there? Why would you start with gambling? I mean, is gambling even a sin? I don't even know if that's even wrong."
I've heard people try to justify gambling to me and say, "It's not a big deal. It's not a big sin. I'm not even sure if it's a sin. Why start there? I'll tell you why I'm going to start there."
Because the love of money is the root of all evil. The root is where something starts. The root is what grows into something bigger, and it gets bigger and bigger.
But if there's no root, there's no plant. The love of money is the root of all evil. That's why we're going to start there.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9, "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition."
See, it starts out with wanting to be rich, and then you fall into all these other temptations and snares.
The Bible says, "For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things." "Flee these things," he said. "Look, run away from that door."
If you find yourself gravitating toward that gambling door, run away! Get away from that door!
"Flee these things." "Flee" means to run away. Get away from it.
The love of money is the root of all evil. You say, "What's wrong with gambling?"
Proverbs 28, you don't have to turn there. If you would turn to Proverbs 24,
"What's wrong with gambling?" Proverbs 28, 20.
"A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."
That is what it is. It's a haste to be rich.
Instead of going to work, getting your paycheck, and earning your money by the sweat of your brow,
you just want to play a game and get a bunch of extra money.
And all of a sudden now, you can go out and do something extravagant
with the money that you got quickly, hastily, and without doing any real work.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 28 verse 22, "He that hasteth to be rich, hath an evil eye."
And what does the Bible say if your eye is full of darkness?
Your whole body will be full of darkness.
He said, "The light of the body is the eye. If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
And he that hasteth to be rich has that evil eye."
And consider not that poverty shall come upon him.
Proverbs 24 verse 8, "He that deviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person.
The thought of foolishness is sin, and the scornor is an abomination to men.
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."
Let me tell you something, the thought of foolishness is sin.
Gambling is for idiots.
You want to know why gambling is for idiots?
Because the house always wins.
The house always wins.
That's why it's for fools.
You say, "Well, where does the Bible specifically mention gambling?"
Oh, just right after they nailed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the cross.
And when Jesus Christ's broken body, this is my body which is broken for you.
This blood is the New Testament.
When he was hanging up there, his broken body, they're gambling.
The people who just nailed him, they're gambling for his garments.
They cast lots over, "Oh, who's going to get the jacket? Who's going to get the coat?"
And whatever.
The first person that I ever baptized as the pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church
back at the beginning of 2006 was a woman who was a blackjack dealer at Wild Horse Pass Casino
right outside Chandler, Arizona, right south of our church.
It's like 10 or 15 minutes from our church.
Wild Horse Pass Casino, she dealt blackjack there.
She was the first person that I baptized as the pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church.
She'd just gotten saved, and she got baptized.
She went to our church for a while, and I got to talk to her a little bit.
And obviously she knew that what she was doing was wrong.
And she said, "I know my job is wrong, and I need to stop doing this job."
But she said, "It's just so hard because I make so much money.
I make like 300 bucks cash, 400 bucks cash a night.
There's no taxes because she was an Indian, and it's an Indian casino on an Indian reservation."
And so she just said, "It's just so hard."
But she said, "My job is to deal blackjack, and I just watch people destroy their lives."
She said, "I see them when they first come in. They're having a good time. It's fun. They're happy.
And I watch that person over the next few months. They know my name. I know their name. I'm their blackjack dealer.
I see them in the casino over and over again."
And she said, "It always ends the same way. It ends with security dragging them out of the casino."
When they finally hit rock bottom, they've mortgaged everything, they've maxed out every credit card,
they've wasted all their money, they've ruined their life, and they lose the final hand of Black Jack.
Then what happens is they accuse the dealer of cheating and start yelling and get physical,
and they get dragged out and thrown out a broken, destroyed person.
She said, "I've seen it over and over again."
Is she still going to Faithful Word Baptist Church? No, because she continued in sin.
I mean, she kept on dealing Black Jack, she kept on living with her boyfriend.
You know, unfortunately, she made the wrong decisions.
I don't know where she's at today, I hope eventually she got right with God.
But she wasn't right with God at that time, and so she didn't continue to come to the church.
But let me tell you something, you know, eventually I asked her to leave.
Because I said, you know, you can't live with your boyfriend and come to our church.
You know, you gotta either get married or something, you know, you gotta do what's right here.
You've been here for a few months, you've heard the Word of God, you know, it's time to make a decision, and so forth.
Gambling is a wicked sin. It's destructive. Casinos are some of the most wicked places.
They're evil places where greedy people just destroy other people's lives and profit from their suffering.
And I live in Arizona, there are a lot of casinos in Arizona, they're on the Indian Reservations.
And let me tell you something, I drive by these casinos, I don't care if it's a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
The parking lot's packed. 2 a.m., parking lot is packed. 2 p.m., parking lot is packed. 10 a.m., parking lot is packed.
It doesn't matter what time, it doesn't matter what the situation, those parking lots are packed all the time.
And you know what, it's a wicked sin, and it's prevalent in our nation.
Oh, gambling's illegal, right, except it seems like every state, there's some kind of loophole,
whether they have a boat in the river, and they, well, it's on the water.
There's literally a place where there is a casino boat, and it's like international waters.
But the boat never sails anywhere, it just sits there, and it's the casino boat.
Well, the Indians, you know, yeah, let's just destroy their lives more,
by getting them involved in this wickedness, or whatever.
I gotta move on. So, gambling.